2020: Week 6

February 3, 2020 – February 9, 2020

Made Irish soda bread. See the recipe(s) below. I enjoyed this with some creamed cinnamon honey I bought at the honey farm last weekend. It was the best breakfast to eat at the airport while I waited for a 6 am flight.

I got flown to Toronto for a work conference. I went a day early and left late on the last day to maximize my free time in the city. A few loved ones gave me lists of their favourite places and things to do. It was my first time there, and I really fell in love with it. I got to almost everything on my list.

My flight there was delayed by 4 hours, but I still got to keep my dinner reservation at Momofuku. I had a satisfying bowl of pork ramen, and bought a ton of packaged desserts from their bakery to enjoy over the weekend. The Milk Bar pie and B’Day truffles were my favourites. After dinner I walked to the Distillery District to enjoy the Toronto Light Fest before heading to Crews and Tangos to catch a drag show. I got to see Tynomi Banks and Priyanka perform, who I saw a couple weeks earlier in Victoria for It’s Just Drag. I also got amazing hot cookies from Craig’s Cookies in the Church and Wellesley area and walked home as it started to snow.

On my main sightseeing day I got an oatmeal cookie oat milk latte at Balzac’s before heading into St. Lawrence market for a peameal bacon sandwich. I went to the Distillery District again to see it during the day and went to the Balzac’s there too. It was such a gorgeous coffee shop.

The Royal Ontario Museum was incredible. The huge variety of historical exhibits and natural history exhibits made for a great couple hours of exploration.

After the museum I went to Queen’s Park, Kensington Market, Graffiti Alley, CN Tower, Dundas Square, Ryerson Image Centre, and the Eaton Centre. At the CN Tower I got the entire skypod level to myself. It was a bit spooky being up there by myself after the elevator operator went back down. It was an unexpected surprise though and I could take photos to my heart’s content.

I got Dim Sum (shrimp rolls, chicken dumplings in soup, and pan fried turnip cake) from Rol San for lunch. I went to Patois for dinner and had Jamaican patties, slaw, jerk chicken, and a fresh coconut with rum. I also went to Rhum Corner for a fresco and pen patat for dessert. All were incredible spots and the flavours of everything were unreal.

The conference was amazing. My company booked us at the revolving restaurant at the CN Tower for dinner on the first night.

On my final day, I got an unreal oat milk cortado from Pilot Coffee, went on a big walk with a coworker, got amazing dumplings at Yummy Yummy Dumpling and some cute desserts from Daan Go Pastry Lab, and ended by wandering the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), and getting a roti before heading home.

Here’s what I made over the weekend for the upcoming week.

Irish soda bread was the lone new recipe this week because of all the travel. I combined Budgetbytes’ Brown Butter Soda Bread recipe with Ina Garten’s Irish Soda Bread recipe. I used everything and the instructions from Budgetbytes’ recipe except I used buttermilk instead of milk and lemon juice and did not add the optional spices. Instead, I added the orange zest and currants from Ina’s recipe. The combination of brown butter, orange, and currants was divine and hearty. It was so good hot, but also delicious for breakfast on the following days.

Things were sort of in limbo this week. I’ll get back to regular updates next week.